4 results
How does staggered membership renewal affect parliamentary behaviour? Evidence from the French Senate
- David M. Willumsen, Klaus H. Goetz
-
- Journal:
- European Political Science Review / Volume 11 / Issue 2 / May 2019
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 17 June 2019, pp. 267-284
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
The staggered renewal of parliamentary mandates is widespread in upper chambers, yet little understood. Comparative work has found that all members of a chamber are affected by upcoming elections, not merely those whose terms are up for renewal. In this study, we explore for which activities, and under which conditions, staggered membership renewal is associated with class-specific parliamentary activity, defined as systematically differing behaviour across two or more classes of members. We examine these questions with data on the French Senate. Drawing on insights from the study of political business cycles, legislative cycles, and previous scholarship on staggering, the article shows that behaviour varies over the course of senators’ mandates, and that class-specific behaviour exists. However, staggering produces a different pattern of parliamentary activity than might be expected: proximity to elections reduces parliamentary activity of the class of senators facing re-election; by contrast, senators ‘not up next’ become more active. This effect, we argue, reflects the electoral system under which senators are elected.
Performing to Type? How State Institutions Matter in East Central Europe
- RADOSLAW ZUBEK, KLAUS H. GOETZ
-
- Journal:
- Journal of Public Policy / Volume 30 / Issue 1 / April 2010
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 25 February 2010, pp. 1-22
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
While there is much research on the developmental trajectories of post-Communist state institutions and the external and domestic influences that have shaped their paths, much less is known about institutional performance, that is, the manner in which institutions operate and the extent to which they produce predictable patterns of effects. Academic analysis has been reluctant to shift attention from institutionalisation to effects, not least because of the fluidity of many formal institutions. The present article documents that over the last decade state institutions in East Central Europe have increasingly stabilized, especially at the macro-institutional level. The analysis highlights insights from institutional theory – notably how degrees, time, preferences and resources matter – to encourage further research in the field.
Intake rates and the functional response in shorebirds (Charadriiformes) eating macro-invertebrates
- John D. Goss-Custard, Andrew D. West, Michael G. Yates, Richard W. G. Caldow, Richard A. Stillman, Louise Bardsley, Juan Castilla, Macarena Castro, Volker Dierschke, Sarah. E. A. Le. V. dit Durell, Goetz Eichhorn, Bruno J. Ens, Klaus-Michael Exo, P. U. Udayangani-Fernando, Peter N. Ferns, Philip A. R. Hockey, Jennifer A. Gill, Ian Johnstone, Bozena Kalejta-Summers, Jose A. Masero, Francisco Moreira, Rajarathina Velu Nagarajan, Ian P. F. Owens, Cristian Pacheco, Alejandro Perez-Hurtado, Danny Rogers, Gregor Scheiffarth, Humphrey Sitters, William J. Sutherland, Patrick Triplet, Dave H. Worrall1, Yuri Zharikov, Leo Zwarts, Richard A. Pettifor
-
- Journal:
- Biological Reviews / Volume 81 / Issue 4 / November 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 24 July 2006, pp. 501-529
- Print publication:
- November 2006
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
As field determinations take much effort, it would be useful to be able to predict easily the coefficients describing the functional response of free-living predators, the function relating food intake rate to the abundance of food organisms in the environment. As a means easily to parameterise an individual-based model of shorebird Charadriiformes populations, we attempted this for shorebirds eating macro-invertebrates. Intake rate is measured as the ash-free dry mass (AFDM) per second of active foraging; i.e. excluding time spent on digestive pauses and other activities, such as preening. The present and previous studies show that the general shape of the functional response in shorebirds eating approximately the same size of prey across the full range of prey density is a decelerating rise to a plateau, thus approximating the Holling type II (‘disc equation’) formulation. But field studies confirmed that the asymptote was not set by handling time, as assumed by the disc equation, because only about half the foraging time was spent in successfully or unsuccessfully attacking and handling prey, the rest being devoted to searching.
A review of 30 functional responses showed that intake rate in free-living shorebirds varied independently of prey density over a wide range, with the asymptote being reached at very low prey densities (<150/m−2). Accordingly, most of the many studies of shorebird intake rate have probably been conducted at or near the asymptote of the functional response, suggesting that equations that predict intake rate should also predict the asymptote.
A multivariate analysis of 468 ‘spot’ estimates of intake rates from 26 shorebirds identified ten variables, representing prey and shorebird characteristics, that accounted for 81% of the variance in logarithm-transformed intake rate. But four-variables accounted for almost as much (77.3%), these being bird size, prey size, whether the bird was an oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus eating mussels Mytilus edulis, or breeding. The four variable equation under-predicted, on average, the observed 30 estimates of the asymptote by 11.6%, but this discrepancy was reduced to 0.2% when two suspect estimates from one early study in the 1960s were removed. The equation therefore predicted the observed asymptote very successfully in 93% of cases.
We conclude that the asymptote can be reliably predicted from just four easily measured variables. Indeed, if the birds are not breeding and are not oystercatchers eating mussels, reliable predictions can be obtained using just two variables, bird and prey sizes. A multivariate analysis of 23 estimates of the half-asymptote constant suggested they were smaller when prey were small but greater when the birds were large, especially in oystercatchers. The resulting equation could be used to predict the half-asymptote constant, but its predictive power has yet to be tested.
As well as predicting the asymptote of the functional response, the equations will enable research workers engaged in many areas of shorebird ecology and behaviour to estimate intake rate without the need for conventional time-consuming field studies, including species for which it has not yet proved possible to measure intake rate in the field.
11 - Administrative Reform: Is Public Bureaucracy Still an Obstacle?
-
- By Klaus H. Goetz, London School of Economics and Political Science
- Edited by Simon Green, University of Birmingham, William E. Paterson, University of Birmingham
-
- Book:
- Governance in Contemporary Germany
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 02 June 2005, pp 239-260
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Public administration and public policies aimed at its reform occupy a central position in Peter Katzenstein's (1987) analysis of the semisovereign state. They appear in four distinct ways. First, a decentralised bureaucracy is the third of four defining features of the ‘decentralised state’ that Katzenstein contrasts with ‘centralised society’. The fourth feature, the constrained power of the chancellor, is also closely connected to the administrative organisation of the German state, since the constitutional right of ministers to run their departments without interference from the chancellor ‘reinforces the bureaucratic fragmentation (Ressortprinzip) inherent in the federal bureaucracy’ (1987, p. 23). Second, two of the three ‘nodes’ of the policy network – co-operative federalism and parapublic institutions – are directly associated with public administration. Co-operative federalism is, to a large extent, about co-operation between the administrations at local, Land and federal levels, and many parapublic institutions – such as the Federal Labour Office (Bundesanstalt für Arbeit) – are public authorities in all but name. Third, public administration is key to explaining patterns of policy development, for ‘West German bureaucracy presents structural obstacles to large-scale changes no less formidable than the interaction of coalition governments, co-operative federalism, and parapublic institutions’ (1987, p. 255). Finally, administrative reform serves as an illustrative case study for the ‘analysis of the organization and political capacities of the West German state’ (1987, pp. 254–5).
It is not difficult to see why public administration and administrative policy should be at the heart of the debate about the semisovereign state.